Editing National Rally (section)

==== Electoral breakthrough (1982–1988) ====
[[File:200109 Jean-Marie Le Pen 191.jpg|thumb|[[Jean-Marie Le Pen]], leader of the National Front from 1972 to 2011]]
While the French party system had been dominated by polarisation and competition between the clear-cut ideological alternatives of two political blocs in the 1970s, the two blocs had largely moved towards the centre by the mid-1980s. This led many voters to perceive the blocs as more or less indistinguishable, particularly after the [[Socialist Party (France)|Socialists]]' "austerity turn" (''tournant de la rigueur'') of 1983,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/08/francois-mitterrand-socialist-party-common-program-communist-pcf-1981-elections-austerity/|title=The Many Lives of François Mitterrand|last=Birch|first=Jonah|date=19 August 2015|website=[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]]|access-date=22 March 2017|archive-date=23 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323130713/https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/08/francois-mitterrand-socialist-party-common-program-communist-pcf-1981-elections-austerity/|url-status=live}}</ref> in turn inducing them to seek out to new political alternatives.{{sfn|Kitschelt|McGann|1997|pp=95–98}} By October 1982, Le Pen supported the prospect of deals with the mainstream right, provided that the FN did not have to soften its position on "key issues."{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=195}} In the [[1983 French municipal elections|1983 municipal elections]], the centre-right [[Rally for the Republic]] (RPR) and the centrist [[Union for French Democracy]] (UDF) formed alliances with the FN in a number of towns.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=195}} The most notable result came in the [[20th arrondissement of Paris]], where Le Pen was elected to the local council with 11% of the vote.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=195}}{{sfn|DeClair|1999|p=60}} Subsequent by-elections kept media attention on the party, which was for the first time able to pose as a viable component of the broader right.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=196}}{{sfn|DeClair|1999|p=61}} In a by-election in [[Dreux]] in October 1983, the FN won 17% of the vote.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=195}} With the choice of defeat to the political left or dealing with the FN, the local RPR and UDF agreed to form an alliance with the FN, causing a national sensation;{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=195}} together, they won the second round with 55% of the vote.{{sfn|DeClair|1999|p=60}} The events in Dreux were a monumental turning point in the rise of the FN.{{sfn|Kitschelt|McGann|1997|p=100}}

Le Pen protested the "media boycott" against his party by sending letters to President Mitterrand in mid-1982.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=196}} Following an exchange of letters with Le Pen, Mitterrand instructed the heads of the main television channels to give equitable coverage to the FN.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=196}} In January 1984, the party made its first appearance in a monthly poll of political popularity, in which 9% of respondents held a "positive opinion" of the FN and some support for Le Pen personally.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=196}} The next month, Le Pen was, for the first time, invited on a prime-time television interview programme, which he himself later deemed "the hour that changed everything".{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=196}}{{sfn|DeClair|1999|p=76}}

In the June [[1984 European Parliament election in France|1984 European elections]], the FN won 11% of the vote and ten seats,{{sfn|DeClair|1999|p=62}}{{refn|group=nb|The 1984 European election used proportional representation system.}} in a contest that was considered to have a low level of importance by the public, which played to the party's advantage.{{sfn|DeClair|1999|p=63}} The FN, notably, made inroads in both right-wing and left-wing constituencies, and finished 2nd in a number of towns.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=194}} While many Socialists had arguably exploited the party in order to divide the right,{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=230}} Mitterrand later conceded that he had underestimated Le Pen.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=196}} By July, 17% of opinion poll respondents held a positive opinion of the FN.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=197}}

By the early 1980s, the FN featured a mosaic of ideological tendencies and attracted figures who were previously resistant to the party.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=197}} The party managed to draw supporters from the mainstream right, including some high-profile defectors from the RPR, the UDF, and the [[National Centre of Independents and Peasants]] (CNIP).{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=197}} In the 1984 European elections, eleven of the 81 FN candidates came from these parties, while the party's list also included an [[Arabs in France|Arab]] and a [[History of the Jews in France|Jew]] - although in unwinnable positions.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=197}} Former [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France|collaborators]] were also accepted in the party, as Le Pen urged the need for "reconciliation", arguing that forty years after the war the only important question was whether or not "they wish to serve their country".{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=197}} The FN won 8.7% overall support in the [[1985 French cantonal elections|1985 cantonal elections]], netting over 30% in some areas.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=209}}

For the [[1986 French legislative election|1986 legislative elections]], the FN took advantage of the new, proportional representation system{{refn|group=nb|The system had been designed by Mitterand's party to soften its predicted weakening in the polls.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=209}}}}{{sfn|DeClair|1999|pp=66}} and won 9.8% of the vote and 35 seats in the National Assembly.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=209}} Many of these seats were filled by a new wave of "respectable" political operatives, ''notables'', who had joined the party after its 1984 success.{{sfn|DeClair|1999|pp=64–66}}{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=216}} The RPR won a majority with smaller, centre-right parties, and thus avoided the need to deal with the FN.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=209}} Although FN was unable to exercise any real political influence, the party could project an image of political legitimacy.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=216}}{{sfn|DeClair|1999|p=80}} Several of its legislative proposals were controversial and had a socially reactionary and xenophobic character, among them attempts to restore the [[death penalty]], expel foreigners who "proportionally committed more crimes than the French", restrict naturalisation, introduce a "national preference" for employment, impose taxes on the hiring of foreigners by French companies, and privatise [[Agence France-Presse]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Fabre|first1=Clarisse|title=Entre 1986 et 1988, les députés FN voulaient rétablir la peine de mort et instaurer la préférence nationale|url=http://felina.pagesperso-orange.fr/doc/extr_dr/prop_lois.htm|access-date=18 September 2016|date=4 May 2002|format=In French|archive-date=12 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161212194534/http://felina.pagesperso-orange.fr/doc/extr_dr/prop_lois.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

The party's time in the National Assembly effectively came to an end when [[Jacques Chirac]] reinstated the two-round system of majority voting for the next election.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=217}} In [[1986 French regional elections|the regional elections]] held on the same day, FN won 137 seats, and gained representation in 21 of the 22 French regional councils.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=209}} The RPR depended on FN support to win presidencies in some regional councils, and the FN won vice-presidential posts in four regions.{{sfn|Shields|2007|p=209}}